Structural engineer and AKT II co-founder and design director Hanif Kara has been named as the winner of the 2024 Soane Medal for Architecture, presented by Sir John Soane’s Museum in London.  

The Soane Medal was established in 2017 to honour architects, academics, and critics who have significantly advanced and enhanced public understanding of architecture through their work in practice, history, or theory.

Previous winners of this prestigious award include Rafael Moneo, Peter Barber, Marina Tabassum, Denise Scott Brown, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Phlippe Vassal, and Kenneth Frampton.

Hanif Kara is the first engineer to receive the Soane Medal for Architecture. 

"Kara’s practice draws on expertise across engineering, design and architecture, challenging the traditional role of a structural engineer to find solutions to the most complex problems, from building in the face of the climate emergency to the engineering of gravity," stated Sir John Soane’s Museum.

"A desire to preserve and build for re-use is now at the core of Kara’s work as he looks to new, innovative materials and techniques to mitigate, and in some cases reverse, the environmental impact of construction," the museum added.

Since 1996, Hanif Kara has contributed significantly to the design of four structures that have won the Stirling Prize: the Bloomberg European headquarters in London by Foster + Partners, the Peckham Library in London by the late architect Will Alsop, Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge by Stanton Williams, and Kingston University London – Town House in London by Grafton Architects.

Notable projects include Google's London headquarters by Bjarke Ingels Group and Thomas Heatherwick, Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino by Foster + Partners, and the new London Museum by Stanton Williams Architects and Asif Khan, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open in Smithfield, a former Victorian meat market in London. 

Kara has collaborated with internationally recognized firms like David Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Norman Foster and Partners to realize these projects.

Bloomberg's new headquarters in London by Foster + Partners. Image © Nigel Young, courtesy of Foster + Partners

"I am delighted to be awarded this year’s Soane Medal. Soane used his work and collection to inspire future generations of buliders and designers, something I hope to continue through my own work," said Hanif Kara. 

"In the complex world that we live in today, it is impossible to solve the problems we face without interdisciplinary collaboration and thinking."

"Only through curiosity and continual enquiry, questioning practices and norms, will we find the solutions that are so urgently required," Kara added.

Kingston University London – Town House in London by Grafton Architects. Image © Dennis Gilbert/View

In addition to his work, Kara is well known for his unwavering dedication to mentoring and teaching. Kara has held teaching positions at various institutions worldwide, such as the Architecture Association, KHT Stockholm, and the Royal Academy of Arts, and has assisted many emerging artists, architects, and engineers during the experimental phases of their work. 

After his book Design Engineering: AKT was published, Kara accepted a position at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where he is currently among the faculty members with the longest tenure.

"Hanif Kara is the engineer to whom Sir John Soane would have turned to realise his most ambitious, exciting designs," said Will Gompertz, Deborah Loeb Brice Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum. 

"They might be divided by two centuries, but they are united in the belief that innovative, sympathetic, beautiful architecture can make a lasting and positive impact on the world," Gompertz added.

In addition to writing and lecturing at a public event, the Medal recipient gets a duplicate of the original gold medal that the "Architects of England" gave to Sir John Soane in 1835.

On November 26, Hanif Kara will be presented with the award at the Royal Academy where he will give a lecture on his career. Kara’s lecture will reflect on his varied career and convey his optimism about addressing the climate emergency: "As a scientist, I like to think that hope can turn into possibilities."

Every year, a group of eminent architects, critics, and curators, headed by Sir David Chipperfield, a former trustee of Sir John Soane's Museum, chooses the recipient of the Soane Medal.

Top image: Hanif Kara. Image © Matt Tidby, courtesy of Sir John Soane’s Museum.

> via Sir John Soane’s Museum

Hanif Kara Soane Medal